Andrew Barth Feldman Opens Up About How OCD and College Breakups Inspired His Debut Album (Exclusive)

The 'No Hard Feelings' actor tells PEOPLE his co-star Jennifer Lawrence was "supportive" as he made his album 'Penn Station' while filming the comedy

Fresh off his debut theatrical film role in No Hard Feelings, Andrew Barth Feldman is launching into another new artistic venture.

In the five years since the multi-hyphenate performer won a Jimmy Award for acting in the musical Catch Me If You Can in high school, he's conquered the worlds of Broadway, television and film. Now, Feldman's showing off his skills as a singer-songwriter on his debut album Penn Station, released Friday.

Recorded over two years, the eight-track project finds the 21-year-old star sharing personal stories about his life and relationships, some of which were crafted long before he shot to fame. "Starting when I was 14, I was writing the songs on this album, and there was just nothing else to do but share them," Feldman tells PEOPLE. "It's wild and vulnerable and exciting."

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While many people wouldn't want to revisit creative work from their early teen years, Feldman doesn't look back on his past art with embarrassment. And he shouldn't, as he's seen success with early projects like his award-winning high school production as well as SW: A New(sical) Hope, a parody Star Wars musical written with a friend in eighth grade that he's since staged at New York City's famous 54 Below with professional actors.

"That's actually why I got in touch with my producer [for Penn Station] because my agent came to see that show and was like, 'Hey, we should do something about your music,'" says Feldman. "So, Star Wars has been a sort of weird through line in all of this."

After he was honored with the Jimmy Award, known as a launching pad for many high school performers looking to go professional, Feldman landed the titular role in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway in 2019. He's since starred in the viral Ratatouille the Musical as well as the Disney+ hit High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which preceded his star vehicle as the shy teen Percy in No Hard Feelings earlier this year alongside Jennifer Lawrence.

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"I feel like the luckiest boy in the world. I've loved everything I've gotten to do so much and cared so much about it. I'm so proud of all this work. There's definitely a feeling of floating without a net," he says of his whirlwind career. "But if my work so far is any indication, I think I'm going to be alright."

Feldman's path so far holds similarities to his Dear Evan Hansen predecessor Ben Platt, who also forayed his film and musical theater experience into a successful music career. "I definitely thought about his career a lot because I think an aspiration of his that's so admirable was to tour and be a pop star," he says. "For me, I think releasing this music is not about notoriety. It's not about becoming a famous recording artist. It was that I had nothing to do with this music except to share it."

Penn Station is a revealing body of work featuring stories largely about the Long Island native's time in New York City, where both his career and romantic relationship with Helen J. Shen have flourished. The album walks listeners through Feldman's ups and downs, including nearly splitting from his partner as he prepared to enroll at Harvard University (where he's currently on a leave of absence for work).

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"New York plays a huge role, and particularly Penn Station, which was, as the song ["The College Breakup"] describes, where we initiated our college breakup," he explains. "But hey, we're together now and have been for two years."

Another main theme throughout the album is obsession, as Feldman has obsessive compulsive disorder that affects his "social anxiety, friendships and relationships — romantic relationships especially." The condition is present in his songwriting, as some of his inescapable thoughts are best expressed through lyrics.

"It's cool to have these songs that track through my own awareness of it and the different ways I've dealt with it," says Feldman, whose song "2AM" chronicles a teenage night where thoughts about a crush kept him from falling asleep. "There's some real darkness to that, in my world at least. In the six years since writing that song, I've gained so much more of an awareness of it, and it's always developing."

As Feldman was recording the album, he was simultaneously filming No Hard Feelings and found himself noticing many similarities between himself and the character of Percy, whose anxiety often gets in the way of his decisions.

"We have very similar reasons for doing what we do, but we put it out in different ways. I am so scared of people not liking me, so I just keep trying," he says with a laugh. "I sort of cling as opposed to him, who sort of detaches himself from ever trying. I'm thankful that I put myself out there. I think that's a relatively healthier way to deal with it. But the best, healthiest way is to just face that anxiety head-on, and that's what a lot of this music is."

Throughout the making of the R-rated comedy, which stars Lawrence as a down-on-her-luck 32-year-old adult who's hired by Percy's parents to help him out of his shell by dating him in exchange for a car, Feldman found a helpful sounding board for his music in his costar.

"There's no one in my life that is more supportive of my songwriting than Jen," he says. "She really does care about music and think about music, and we talked about it a lot on set. She introduced me to Sheryl Crow. I knew about Sheryl Crow, but I never really listened to Sheryl Crow — there are some perfect lyrics in her discography."

Now that Penn Station is out in the world, Feldman would love to get on stage and perform its songs — but it's hard to believe he'll have time. Later this month, he's set to star as Mark in Rent: In Concert at the Kennedy Center, and he's also in the midst of writing music for future solo and musical theater projects.

It doesn't seem like his career will be slowing down anytime soon, especially if it's up to him. While more offers will certainly come his way, he's proven that he doesn't need anyone else to make his dreams come to fruition.

"I am always going to be somebody who makes and generates my own stuff, so I never feel obligated to sign onto a project that doesn't resonate with me and my soul," explains Feldman, "because I can just go home and make one myself."

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